I don't think so, you just forgot to add the remote server address. If you run `system "git", "ls-remote", " --upload-pack=$(touch hello) git@github.com:torvalds/linux.git", "HEAD"` it will fetch the remote server but still create the file on the local machine.
In your example, `HEAD` is the server address, which is interpreted as a local file. `$(touch hello) git@github.com:torvalds/linux.git` is the command to be run in the remote (locally in this case). It will not connect to the server in GitHub.
P.S. it seems that you have an extra space before `--upload-pack`.
